I asked before, back in my January 2010 post:

Where do you hold God?  Church or heart?

My answer back then was clearly: in my heart.

This issue has arisen again recently because of a narrow ruling that Hugh Hewitt revealed indicating a crescendo of criticism involving religion.  His very important Washington Examiner article is here.  He writes about anti-Semitism and the Presbyterian Church of the USA.

Where, once again, man show the rude side of the politics of God.

So that made me think again: where do I come down with regard to the politics of God involving man?

As I wrote in my January 2010 post:

I very rarely speak or write about my religion or my beliefs. I’m of the opinion that my relationship with God primarily involves myself and my Lord. Individually, I’m not a “joiner” per se; my life doesn’t quite revolve around the approval of other humans and it never has. I tend to be a loner by nature and my friends — well, I’m not quite sure that I really have even one very close external friend at this point in my life. I have many acquaintances; that is true. I’d have to say my wife is my best close friend, amongst other roles.

I don’t believe in man, but I believe in God.  I don’t need the trappings of a church to hold God close.  I don’t require the approval of many people in a group to try to be a better man.  And I see, day after day, the fallibility of man and the supremacy of God.  I don’t hold the bible as the ultimate word of God because the bible is rife with the base motivations of man, to include greed, envy, pride, power, and the politics of a few thousand years ago.  The bible was vetted by the Council of Nicea and, as with any gathering of men, there were the political ramifications of what got into the bible and what was excluded.  And that does not even factor in the sometimes very poor historical memory of man himself, tales handed down through the ages by those not of first-hand view.

So, to see these frequently incredibly petty views of man merely emphasizes my view of man and God: I’ll take God any day.  Sunni vs Shiite, Catholic vs Protestant, it’s all immaterial and pointless to me with one exception: it emphasizes my belief in holding God close to my vest.  My God isn’t “better” than your God until and unless you want to kill me or convert me.  Because organized religion has taught me one thing: it is corruptive and confuses the essential core values and meaning of worshiping God.  Man, being fallible, gets caught up in the trappings of man himself and forgets the overarching picture.

Which is why I don’t believe in organized religion and why man still fights man over the make, means and manner in which he holds homage to God.

If you enjoy going to church and the concomitant internal struggles you see perhaps in your own religion or perhaps in your very own house of worship, then blessings upon you.  In my opinion, however, life is too short for me to worry about the pettiness of man and the politics of God in some building.

People may not care for this post but, again, I don’t write for you.  I write for me.  You read me or you don’t.  But should you wish to share your opinion, please do so.

Bottom line: I don’t believe in man.  I believe in God.

BZ